Challenge for Leadership

This was the official blog for the 2008 British National Party Prospective Leadership Challenger, Cllr Colin Auty - Next stop - 2009!
As before, the 2009 leadership campaign will principally be fought on the issues of Reform and Democratisation of the British National Party.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

It is unfortunate that a response has to be made regarding the disgusting accusations emanating from the lie filled mouth of Nick Griffin, yet in order to set the record straight we feel that a response is indeed necessary.

Firstly we would like to point out that the publication of the BNP membership list is a treacherous act which will have repercussions for the entire Party and nationalism in general. Whoever has done this should be utterly ashamed of their spiteful actions. Whatever the reasons for the publication of the list, ordinary BNP members should not have to suffer because of the crass incompetence, flawed personality and arrogance of the Party Leader.

The BNP website carries an “urgent update” from the BNP leader, Nick Griffin. This update blatantly accuses those involved in the December 2007 dispute, which had its source concern expressed by several leading Party members and senior officials over the disgraceful protection by the Chairman of two individuals who had brought and continue to bring the Party into disrepute and heap embarrassment through their incompetence, immaturity and selfish behaviour. Griffin, a man who like so many contemptible politicians can be detected lying when his mouth open’s hardly conceals his ill-founded and thoroughly false suspicions that Kenny Smith, the previous Head of Administration, of being responsible for the publication. This is a disgrace and a downright lie. None of the six people involved in the April 2007 court case want to see the BNP suffer at all. Moreover, they certainly do not want to see the thoroughly decent members and activists suffer at the hands of filthy communist scum. Seeing Nick Griffin get his deserved comeuppance is one thing, harming the Party is completely different. Neither Kenny Smith, nor any of the other co-defendants who Griffin and Darby took to court leaked/published the database.

Nick Griffin has clearly landed himself in very hot water by alleging that the publication of the list proves ‘Contempt of Court’. He says that the web host’s legal department has been contacted by the BNP and that the BNP are liaising with their solicitors about how to use this against the six defendants in the ongoing court action.We would dearly like to see the BNP find out who did this and we would like to see them brought to book. When the real culprit is found we will be expecting a full public apology from Griffin, with damages for the smearing of our names.

In reality, the publication of the membership lists simply shows the contempt in which Griffin holds the BNP membership. By allowing gross inefficiencies in BNP departments (which was the main reason behind the December crisis whereby sickened national officials could not take any more incompetence from two departments and were sacked for speaking out) Griffin is to blame. The fact that up to a dozen (possibly more?) people may have, or have had a full database is bad enough when the database is the BNP’s prize asset. However, the real problem is that Nick Griffin has such a terrible record for falling out with senior BNP officials who criticise him in any way that the list of his enemies is seemingly endless. Because of the way in which Griffin treats those who have given their all for the BNP, he creates a rod for his own back in that some people (in this case misguidedly) may do things which damage the BNP in an attempt to attack Griffin himself.

Further, the rather arrogant way in which the BNP web team and Griffin himself dismiss the membership leak as ‘a publicity bonus’ is truly shocking when you consider that many members and activists with a sensitive job have now been exposed to violent communist bully boys and their backers at Searchlight and UAF. We have already had calls from people who have had such threatening calls and our sympathies go out to them. For Griffin to brush this off, and to wrongly claim that ‘former employees’ were to blame is beneath contempt. Griffin has once again shown just how little he really thinks of the everyday BNP member.

We suggest that the Party Chairman:

1.) Immediately apologises to the six court defendants (who have never been found guilty of anything despite the malicious Griffin/Darby prosecution) and to Kenny Smith in particular.

2.) Actually contacts Dyfed-Powys Police rather than just pretending so, in order to start the ball rolling as to who did actually leak the list.

3.) Actually contacts the web host’s legal department and gets them to shut down the offending websites.

4.) Starts to act in the interests of the members and not operate once more in a zone of self-survival which leads to utter contempt for the feelings of the average BNP member.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

n. the principles of 'Hedonistic-nationalism' associated with Nicholas John Griffin, characterized esp. by the extreme suppression of any internal dissident political or ideological views especially those that uphold family values or moral obligation to nationalist ethics.

2. a person who exploits his or her influence by abusing the meaning of something, or an organisation, for the betterment of themselves.

3. a person exercising absolute power, esp. a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control within a sect or cult.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

We have received a large amount of information from our supporters and campaign team over the past few days. In order to keep this article within a manageable length we will only stick to what we know to be the facts.

The silent bomb blast – (that you were never supposed to know about)

Firstly, we can once again verify that there was an attack on the main gate area of the RWB site in the early hours of Friday morning. Our reliable sources reported to us that this attack involved something "very loud indeed" followed by intense police activity around the area of the front gate .

The Party, media and police have remained eerily silent about this incident, even with one of Griffin’s attack blogs – Covert Undercover Nuisance Tactics – hurriedly back-peddling on a earlier semi-literate report about it with an equally hastily prepared story posted a couple of hours later at the behest of a seething-mad Griffin, worried that members would not attend the RWB because of it and potentially leading to the Party becoming "bankrupted" as he put it himself.

Quite how the membership is supposed to believe that a bomb throwing extremist, can within a few hours be written off as simply an exuberant local youth at play at 3.50am, baffles the imagination.

Vital information withheld?

The full truth surrounding this incident will hopefully be released in the fullness of time, but meanwhile two things we at Challenge for Leadership are hoping for -

Firstly, that there is indeed an ongoing police investigation that will lead to the cowardly culprits being apprehended soon to face proper justice.

Secondly, that Griffin has not put money before the welfare of the membership by withholding vital information that could have put more lives at risk over the weekend.

Would not planning, professionalism, reassurance and honesty have been a far better way of dealing with such a threat and adversity?

What will happen in the future should our Party face such a situation again?

Should we all just simply rely on Griffin to use his ‘Truth-JCB’ once again to push the things he deems as unhelpful to his aims all under the carpet that now also include major security issues?

Maybe next year he could sell lucky rabbit’s feet on the gate in place of risk assessments; he’d be able to make a few quid at the same time then?

Gambles and sleepless nights

One has to ask this question: Why did various factions of the far-left pay so much attention to the RWB this year, when in the past their efforts have been negligible to non-existent in the peak years in Sawley and last year in Denby?

It is our belief that they were simply taking advantage of the situation that has been effectively handed to them on a plate. With Griffin’s popularity at a critically low level, the Party purged of most of its valuable and effective officers, and with the Party coffers running at almost empty, they have simply seen the Party’s chin exposed and have tried to place a well aimed knock-out blow.

Staging the RWB requires a huge inward investment that will always be a gamble to some degree or another; that gamble this year was truly vast and Griffin experienced many a sleepless night in the run up to it.

Unwashed - but not entirely stupid

The tactic of the far-left was quite a simple one, prevent or deter people from accessing the RWB site. With each car that they could turn home, goes with it at least £30 out of Griffin’s pocket, plus of course all the food and donation money that individual branches would also lose. This tactic would not usually work as nationalist people are generally a lot tougher than most and it would normally take a lot more than far-left intimidation, threats and a protest march to stop them.

‘Reds’ and the Boys in Blue

However, as already mentioned, a great many members have already lost or are losing their belief in Griffin’s bitter version of the BNP, and some people only needed one minor excuse not to attend what many have now come to see as simply a weekend of Griffin-worship and affirmation to Griffinism. Being presented with a mob of abuse-hurling morons, and lines of police; some in full riot gear batons drawn, could just have presented that very excuse needed.

Old chestnuts - The media trap

A great many of the red-bloodied membership present would also have wanted the opportunity to teach these idiots, largely made up of middle-class spoilt-brat teenagers, a good clip around the ear and sent scurrying off to bed with their tails between their legs. The sight of these idiots playing silly buggers in the road with the police was really quite pathetic.

However, they knew only too well that it only needed a group of BNP father-members who had wives and children to leave the site and issue out some ‘old fashioned justice’ to them in front of the media and police and they would have been straight down the cells and all over the national papers with headlines such as ‘BNP thugs arrested in street battleground' or 'Locals run for cover as BNP cause riot' etc.

Bearing in mind that a large number of the males in attendance were wearing camo/combat type clothing and boots, would have resulted in tremendous long term damage for the Party in the eyes of the public as selected pictures and footage found their way onto the TV that night. Bear in mind also some of these silly extremist kids are quite willing to take a beating to achieve this in order to impress their communist/anarchist peers back home about how they ‘Got Fascists arrested’ etc.

Unless we can guarantee we will not be seeing a repeat of this entirely unnecessary situation, next year's RWB is likely to be held in a phone-box in Welshpool surrounded by 400 riot police.

Griffin’s BNP- A moderate and professional organisation?

I predict that Griffin will act as he always does ultimately resulting in a series of poorly thought-out knee-jerk reactions. He will now plough a quantity of the precious money the Party has left into hiring even more security men, various security ‘experts’ and all manner of bizarre ‘spy-equipment’ to try and combat the ‘enemies of nationalism’.

In his desperation he is also bound to lose sight of the fact that quality is far better than quantity when in comes to political party security. The desperate act of flooding the Party security department with all manner of cash on the day untrained ‘heavies’ and dinosaurs straight out of the cast of the film ‘Romper Stomper’ will not reduce the risk to the membership; it will in fact increase it.

Having these guys, however brave they may be, standing in a line outside the site gates last Saturday just gave the far-left protest something to scream at and served no purpose at all except to give the media somewhere else to point their cameras. This was simply an act of brash and bravado and not the behaviour of anything even remotely like that of a moderate and professional organisation. Then again, where have we heard this before in Griffin’s version of the BNP?

Our damaged heart

The resources we have left should be far more wisely spent on rebuilding the damaged heart that lies within the membership, and giving us back a party that they once again truly believe is worth fighting for. The far-left would then fade away, starved of their belief in being able to break us so easily. Unless Griffin is removed, his greed, arrogance and ultimately self-destructive nature will keep us hobbling along in the political shadow of the Liberal-Labour-Tory Establishment as nothing more than a joke, and minor irritation to it; Griffinism is simply crippling us.

A picture speaks a thousand words – but where are the 4,000 attendees?

Not surprisingly, the Griffin propaganda machine has gone into overdrive and grossly exaggerated figures of the total attendance have been bounced around. At the highest and busiest point of the weekend, which was the much anticipated EGM, around 250 people where present or nearby, and the total number of people that passed through the gate was in fact no more than 1,500, and the great roll of cash that Griffin hoped to make this year, has simply failed to materialise.

(Since writing this article, we have been contacted by several members that attended to say that we are being far too generous with a figure of 1,500 and that way less than a 1,000 attended all weekend with areas of the site at times virtually deserted).

Does the Party leadership honestly think that such gross exaggerations about attendance will go unnoticed by those that were actually there? We know that since the heady days of the old RWB’s at the Sawley site, attendance has been falling and further misleading figures will not help matters.

An honest grass-roots assessment and report of the weekend presented to the membership would have served as a refreshing breath of air and encourage people within the membership to come forward and offer greater support in the future; from this point there can be only growth. Spin and manipulation will only create more holes for people to fall through. As we have said time and time again; the membership are not stupid Mr Griffin.

So where did the RWB atmosphere disappear to Nick?

It has been widely reported that the key ingredient was missing from this year's RWB, an ingredient so important that without it there is no spark, no camaraderie and little feeling of brotherhood around the site. It comes as no surprise to comment on the fact that a Party whose leader uses proscription and illegal expulsion as a weapon to silence his internal critics, has bled the BNP dry of its most precious resource, comradeship - a feeling of bonding against a common foe.

Tea’s-up! (50p)

It has also been reported to us that Griffin himself relieved Chris Vanns – now ex-BNP catering, of his services prior to the RWB and then set-up two food stalls for himself. For years Chris ploughed thousands of pounds and weeks of his own time into previous RWB’s only now to have it thrown back in his face.

Griffin’s greed even penetrated further into other branch and regional stalls this year with Griffin storming into Richard Barnbrook's London Stall to demand that that he should increase the price of the cups of tea Richard was selling from 50p to £1 because Griffin was loosing customers and to squeeze more money out of the hard-pressed membership!

The fee that Griffin charged each of the regions to pitch their stall at the RWB also did not go down very well with the membership, many of whom were genuinely shocked at being told they would face yet another Griffin-tax. One member contacted us and expressed, in no uncertain terms, his disgust at this act of blatant money grabbing..

Griffin’s ‘Truth’ Truck – under guard

It is interesting why, with a field supposedly full to the brim with his ‘doting and contented membership’, did Griffin feel it necessary to park his latest fad, not in the main arena so people could marvel at it (after all they paid for it), but right next to the security tent on a separate part of the site under 24 hr guard for the entire weekend.

Was it merely the risk of ‘Reds’ invading the site in the dead of night that would have stimulated his paranoia to such a level? That being the case of course, wouldn’t moving tents or caravans that had children in them next to the security area be more of a priority for him than looking after a bloody lorry?

Sunday's EGM – The greatest insult of all.

We at Challenge for Leadership, along with a great number of card carrying members and ex-members concluded that this entire EGM was going to be very carefully stage-managed by Griffin and his close clique of sycophants, and we were not disappointed in either respect.

Although it appeared as though Griffin was defeated in his 4 year rule constitutional amendment, he did in fact walk away with the entire Party almost secured in his back pocket unnoticed by most of the membership present. The supposed ‘compromise’ has left us in a position whereby we can have a leadership challenge every year, however, and this is a huge "however", that challenger will require 5% of the total membership which has unbroken membership for a minimum of two years to sign to say they support the challenge.

Bear in mind that the Party leadership is stating that the membership is around 10,000, this would mean that up to 500 signatures would be required from around the country! If this wasn’t difficult enough, add to the equation the fact that in Griffin’s BNP to sign a leadership nomination form against is counter-mount to cutting your membership card in half.

Think about the fact also that to stand as an official prospective local councillor you need only 10 signatures; and this is the same system that Griffin describes as ‘undemocratic’ The hypocrisy here is unbelievable.

Myself, Colin Auty and the rest of the team can vouch for just how many members are genuinely scared of what would have happened if they showed their support for Colin. Remember also that Colin was an immensely popular member, musician and elected borough councillor, and Colin still just fell short of the required 100 signatures.

It would seem therefore an almost impossible task to gather this quantity of overt supporters. Finding such a large total of willing members with few resources, to effectively sign themselves onto Griffin’s ‘2009 purge-list’ will be a mammoth undertaking. Griffin has stitched the Party membership up very tightly indeed.

Griffin’s blackmail, if you want him out – it will cost us £30,000+

We find it particularly difficult to come to terms to one amendment that Griffin managed to sneak through, and that is that if we want to rid ourselves of his rule, it could financially wipe us off the political map. Clearly Griffin now knows that he is in an unrecoverable position within the Party, and all the constitutional changes under the sun cannot hold off the inevitable for ever.

Even the mere idea that the chairman of the British National Party should be ‘paid off’ for having filled a position he should have been honoured to have served is deeply saddening.

We have listed just a few comparisons of just how Griffin shows his contempt for the membership.

Average activist/organiser-Donates a huge sum each year to help keep their group or branch ticking along.Griffin-Takes home £25k a year plus thousands through the Trafalgar Club and form11 expenses.

Average activist/organiser-Spends a fortune on petrol each year and adds thousands of miles onto their car.Griffin-Chauffeur driven around the country and charges local groups to speak at their meetings, despite this being his job! He also claims expenses for food, hotels etc all from the Party.

Average activist/organiser-Will sometimes pay for their membership and activism by loosing their job/career/livelihood and maybe socially ostracised.Griffin- The chairmanship is his livelihood; and business is doing great. Has open channels to many media outlets. Focus of attention internationally.

Average activist/organiser-Can be expelled or purged from the Party by Griffin and left with absolutely nothing whatsoever.Griffin-He wants it to cost our Party 30k just to see the back of him.

Average activist/organiser- Sometimes risks physical attack and abuse during their legal and rightful activities.Griffin- Doesn’t even leave the house without a personal minder and will sometimes insist on a large personal security team for public events.

I could go on and on, and I’m sure a great many members could a few to add themselves.

Griffin is now like a spoilt child in a sweetshop, he is stamping his feet while filling his pockets as quickly as he can before he is thrown out on his ear. He is a parasite.

Griffin – You will be denied!

It will fall to be the duty of a newly elected chairman to simply deny Griffin ANY financial ‘back-hander’ or pay-off whatsoever when he is finally excreted from our Party.

There will be no £30,000 for Griffin regardless to any ‘agreement’ that was hastily thrown together at the RWB. One thing we have all learned about ‘Planet Griffin’, and that is when it comes to legal matters, arrogance is not enough in the eyes of the law; and any agreement will simply not be worth the paper it is written on. If Griffin does however decide to take this issue to court he will be soundly defeated, and this time he’ll have to pay for his own legal ineptitude and pomposity.

A ray of hope through the clouds

As the rain clouds over Derbyshire slowly start to clear and gazebos are once again packed into garages and sleeping bags stuffed in to washing machines; a ray of hope can be found shining.

We at Challenge for Leadership implore those members shocked by what Griffin pushed through and manipulated at the EGM to hold fire and not throw away the years of work they have put into the Party by casting away their membership. It was decent members failing to renew their 2008 membership that served Griffin’s purpose by helping to deny us the signatures we needed to allow Colin to stand. Had those people renewed we would have easily achieved the required number so do not fall into that same trap in the future.

There WILL be another challenge, and this time we will be fully alert and ready.

A meeting has already taken place between some of the heavyweight, long standing and sincere British nationalists opposed to the rule of Griffinism. That meeting was very successful and was the first of many. Those involved have learnt some very important lessons over the past few years and those lessons will not be lost.

Our growing support base is spreading throughout the various regions, which has been given a firm boost over the weekend after the shocking changes to the constitution have begun to slowly sink in. Getting out there and spreading the word will now be considerably easier than before. This will make the monumental task of achieving the required signatures within our grasp regardless of how difficult it has been made for us this year.

We will work hard towards whatever it will take to unseat Griffin in the next leadership challenge and replace him with a genuine individual with only the success of our British National Party in his or her heart and mind.

Never again must we allow ourselves to become so complacent that we allow a corrupt and devious totalitarian to weave a creeping web around us all.

Friday, August 15, 2008

There have been unconfirmed reports that a bomb was thrown early this morning at the gates of the RWB site in Denby, Derbyshire, by 'militant anti-fascists?'.

Information is very sketchy at this time, but as soon as we can find out more, we will report it here. Update –

It has been virtually impossible to verify any of the above information, but we do have a reliable source that has told us that the police are ‘taking something very seriously indeed’One particular Griffin-propaganda blog had posted information about an incident, but later retracted it and denied it had happened in a clearly very clumsy and desperate attempt to hide something, and blamed local youths with fireworks. Quite why the police would take a kid with a ‘firework’ very seriously indeed, is something worth pondering. It is the belief of the Challenge for Leadership team that indeed a very serious incident has probably taken place, and Griffin’s lie machine has gone into overdrive to conceal the truth to protect his money-spinning weekend. The police may well also have put into place a ‘D notice’ preventing any media outlet from reporting the incident while they investigate further. We will leave it now for the reader to come to their own conclusions to this mysterious and potentially very worrying situation.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

As discussed in the last British Nationalist bulletin, the full text of the proposed changes to the party Constitution have now been published in full on the BNP website. These have been posted prominently on the Featured Articles section, which means that they will stay there in full view from now until the meeting. They are also being sent to you now at the bottom of this email, so that you can study them for yourself and pass them on to others. They will also be on display at the RWB itself.

The full current Constitution is also online (linked in the article itself) so that you and your members can compare the two and see the changes in full context.

Finally, the BNP members have been allowed to view the actual Constitution of the Party of which they are members! It seems that Nick Griffin has done all he can up to now to prevent people from seeing the Constitution, as a full reading of it leaves one in little doubt that it allows Nick Griffin to run the BNP like a Dictatorship.

Predictably, all the usual suspects - Lancaster UAF, the false flag 'nationalist' blogs run by Searchlight, the neo-Nazi cranks and various air-headed Tory types - are working themselves into hysteria about these changes, which they portray - in typical contradictory terms - as either 'dictatorial' or 'weak'. But rather than merely deciding to vote FOR anything that their unholy anti-BNP alliance opposes, you are asked to take a few minutes to study the proposals for yourself.

Yawn….. Come on Nick, change the record. It is your most common tactic to lump all your enemies (note YOUR enemies, not usually enemies of the BNP) into one and then attempt to create a ‘them’ versus ‘us’ mentality in the eyes of the membership. You have churned out the same rubbish for years, just like you did when you split the National Front many years ago with your expulsions and accusations. The one thing that you seem to be forgetting is that aside from the Red Scum, everyone else who criticises you actually wants to save the BNP, hence why they criticise you. To assume that ‘we are under attack from the usual suspects’ is simply false. YOU are under attack from many people out in the open who there is no need to suspect – no decent Nationalists are attacking the BNP, just you.

As you will see, the biggest change proposed by the four motions is related to future leadership elections. These proposals arose partly as a result of concern by very large numbers of local officials who were sick and tired of having to reassure good-hearted but less experienced activists that the Internet and media chatter about such things creating a 'crisis' for our party on an annual basis were wholly unfounded. At the same time as proposing to move forward to elections for four-year, fixed term leadership (starting with a compulsory leadership election next year), however, the proposals also fill the gap in the old Constitution, which leaves the arrangements for such contests purely at the discretion of the leader at the time.

And what a change that would be! The Constitution was fine as long as your propaganda and spin was keeping members happy that we were on the verge of a breakthrough, that we were the fastest growing party in the country, and that all your enemies were the enemies of the BNP. In fact, you deemed the Constitution fine so long as nobody troubled your lofty position and pay packet at the top of the tree. When more and more good people (high ranking officials, local-level officials, hard-working activists, donators) became disillusioned with you, and your running of OUR party, and some even had the temerity to stand against you, you want to change the rules!

The reason that things are blown out of proportion are as follows:There is no democratic accountability in the BNP.There is no proper and just disciplinary procedure in the BNP.There are no set rules on how a leadership contest will take place – Where do people go to get nomination papers? Who is the returning officer?There was potentially going to be a leadership contest this year, yet rather than BNP publications and/or the website informing members of this, it said nothing – why do you think members wondered what was going on and either got information from people hostile to you or from people that you instruct to spread lies and disinformation? This created a hostile environment, as did your bad mouthing of Cllr. Colin Auty when he announced that he would be standing against you.You are immensely paranoid and this ensures that an environment of mistrust exists and that you stack the odds in your favour so that any competitor has little or no chance of winning an election against you. You enter the ring against your opponent having tied his hands together and stabbed him in the back.Leadership campaigns should be encouraged – people respond to incentives. The best person should lead the BNP and should do a good enough job every year to justify being re-elected every year, in a friendly environment.

In reality, it is the more experienced officials who are your largest critics as they have seen all this from you before. It is the wet behind the ears newcomers who are your biggest fans, as they have not yet had the chance to see how incompetent, greedy and paranoid you really are. However, you want to make it seem that “large numbers of local officials” are behind you all the way and thus convince those wavering that ‘everyone who is anyone in the BNP is behind Mr. Griffin’. What about the large number (over 60 officials and councillors) who resigned in protest at your latest round of purges against decent nationalists in December 2007?

The new proposals for the mechanics of leadership elections, and the shifting of the date to the Autumn so as to get them well away from the usual May/June election dates, were worked out after extensive debate by a Constitutional revision working party appointed by the Advisory Council earlier this year. It is hoped that the proposed commitment to a clearly fair and democratic debate will not only be appreciated by our members but will also reinforce the party's democratic credentials to a wider audience.

You have to be having a laugh here Nick? When has anything been fair and democratic with you? It is you who:

Expels people without a tribunal

Expels those in charge of BNP media who don’t hang onto your every word, and replaces them with Griffin supporters

Called Chris Jackson and his supporters “vermin” for having the audacity to want democratic reform

Called Cllr. Colin Auty a “back-stabbing c***” when he announced that he would be standing against you this year

Appoints all national officials in the BNP, regardless of the job they are doing, and appoints on favouritism and personal agenda’s rather than ability to get the job done

In addition, since the shift to a four-year term could be seen as handing more power to the leader (though, with only two leadership contests in the party's 26-year history so far, some may think that to claim so is to ignore reality), there is also an extremely important move to hand to the Annual Conference the power by a two-third majority vote in effect to pass a vote of 'No Confidence' in the leader and trigger a leadership contest in any year. It is hoped that this combination will both deny our opponents the opportunity to encourage and exploit rumours of annual contests by manipulated 'no-hope' candidates, and at the same time provide an important safeguard to prevent any leader, present or future, from trying to move beyond anything approved of by the majority of the Voting Members - the local officials and key activists who really make the party tick.

Your changes have nothing to do with future leaders, and everything to do with the present leader. Because of your track record of expulsions, slandering and accusations, against anyone who does not give you (again you, not the BNP) total loyalty, people are scared to speak out or lead a rebellion against you and you know this. You rule like Machiavelli’s Prince. You know that there is very little chance of two thirds of voting members voting you out as you expel or sideline any voting member who questions your ability or your integrity. You wanted to expel all those who signed the nomination papers for Chris Jackson – that is the depths of your sick and paranoid agenda. That agenda is personal and wholly against the interests of the BNP.

You mention that there have only been two leadership elections in the last 26 years, yet there would have been two in the last two years had your bully boy tactics not prevented a respected Councillor from standing against you. Thus the trend is that more and more people are getting sick of the current leadership i.e. you, and to safeguard against this you want to guarantee yourself a four year term.

The fact that you compliment Voting Members who really do make the Party tick is a simple ploy to try and get them onside. If you ever got wind of Voting Members not being happy with you, you would expel the ‘ring-leaders’ (without a tribunal no doubt), would butter up the rest of the voting members in publications controlled by you, would get your gimps to phone around the rest of the voting members extolling your virtues, and would use your spin and propaganda gimps to brainwash anyone else.

The Voting Membership's power over major policy changes will also be enshrined in the new Constitution if the motion is approved. This is not only what has already been agreed as the right way forward, but it would also put an end to the endless black propaganda tales that the leadership are planning to let in black members or similar nonsense.

The other particularly important change (several of them are minor, tidying up points) would be to allow future Constitutional amendments to be voted on by postal ballot. The Constitutional working party proposed this in order to deal with the potential problem that, when the Constitution was first written by John Tyndall in 1982, the entire membership could be fitted into a large number of meeting places. Since then, fortunately, a ten-fold membership growth means that, to get even a quarter of our membership into a meeting hall would be possible in so few venues that, quite apart from the huge cost involved, we would be extraordinarily unlikely to be able to find a venue willing to have us or to withstand the inevitable pressure from the far-left.

Would the postal ballots be sent to a Griffin friendly official no doubt? In see-through envelopes, like last time, so that Chris Jackson votes could be seen by putting them up to the window or the light bulb? Where would they be stored? You can get thousands of people in a field; the BNP would not get many thousands of members to an EGM while you are in charge.

This is why it was decided by the Advisory Council that the end of the RWB was the only time and place practical for the holding of such a debate and series of votes, and why our working party decided to propose to include the option of postal ballots in future.

Not surprisingly, the usual little cliques of malcontents are all hoping that a natural desire to go home at the end of a busy weekend will leave the meeting short on officials and members with a mature attitude to serious organisation, and long on individuals who for one reason or another will be there to cause trouble or push their own personal agendas, rather than doing what is best for the party. We are not asking that you come along with your minds already made up, still less that you think in terms of voting in favour of the proposals automatically just because they are being proposed by the most successful leadership in the history of British nationalism. But we are asking that you make the effort to be there, to listen to the debate and to vote for what you genuinely think is best for the BNP - regardless of which way you judge that to be. And we ask that you also mobilise your local members to do the same.

And here we go again… “little cliques of malcontents”. By this Nick Griffin means anyone who does not either like him, his running of the BNP, or both. Yet of course Griffin will be OK as he has those with a “mature attitude to serious organisation” to rely on. i.e. if you don’t for Griffins proposals then you are immature and would like the rest of the BNP to be run like the Treasury Department. The best interests of the Party would be for Nick Griffin to resign there and then, yet for the time being it is imperative that he does not get away with getting himself a four year term (knowing how fixed the potential winner takes all election in 2009 would be).

Let's us this opportunity not only to further strengthen the foundations on which the British National Party is based, but also as a way to boost even further the attendance at this year's Red-White-and-Blue. No doubt you are already aware that the Labour council and the far-left's brave cyber-warriors and lock-supergluers are almost hysterical in their efforts to stop it going ahead, or at least to put people off and cut down our numbers and our fun. They know that the BNP is on a roll and they are desperate to inflict some kind of 'defeat' on us before the gathering economic crisis brings the time of explosive growth that puts us way beyond their league forever. So please come along, preferably on Friday 15th so that there are so many of us and our families there that it will be their morale that, yet again, takes a battering. See you there!

Yes Nick, see you there!

GENERAL MEMBERS' MEETINGSunday 17th August 2008, 3.30 pm.Political Marquee, Red-White-and-Blue Field. Codnor, Derbyshire.Entry: Paid up current BNP members only. No charge. Current membershp card must be shown to gain entry.

This is a pretty straight-forward start – used to get people used to voting ‘yes’.

Motion 2Leadership Elections

The whole of the existing Section 4 should be replaced with:

S.4.1. Elections for the post of National Chairman shall be held every four years, starting in 2009. Nominations shall open on 20th July in each leadership election year and close at noon on 10th August. The election shall be held on a 'one member, one vote' basis in a secret postal ballot of all members paid up by 1st of July.

S.4.2. Any member of the party may become a candidate for the post of National Chairman of the party provided that person has on or before the close of nominations is and has been a fully paid up member of the party for a minimum of five consecutive years, and has secured the signatures on his or her nomination paper of ten current Voting Members and one hundred members each with a minimum of 24 months continuous membership. Each member can only nominate one candidate.

So now you are expecting people such as elected Councillors to get 110 signatures – and ten of those must be from Voting Members who you would then expel anyway. This, by the way, without access to knowing who is a member and who isn’t, or indeed how long they have been members for.

S.4.3. Notification of a leadership election shall be issued in the September issue of British Nationalist, while the October issue will include an A4 manifesto sheet from each candidate (designed and supplied by them) and a ballot paper, and will be sent by post to all members, including those who normally receive their bulletins electronically.

S.4.4. A prerecorded debate between the candidates shall be publicised on BNPtv, a private page on the BNP website will give each candidate up to six sides of A4 designed by them, the party magazine shall give each candidate equal space to set out their ideas, and at least three hustings meetings will be held with equal time for each candidate in different parts of the country and be open to all paid up members from the areas in question. In the event that unavoidable external circumstances render any of these methods of communication impractical they may be omitted or replaced as decided by a simple majority vote of a special meeting of the Advisory Council.

Try and make out that in future you will be much fairer to your challengers than you ever have been in the past, in order to convince people that although elections will be every four years instead of every year, you will give them a bit more of a chance than you have done before.

S.4.5. The ballot papers shall be kept unopen-ed until the post has arrived on the third Thursday of October, where all received ballots shall be opened and counted under the supervision of two senior officials appointed by the AC who are not candidates, together with the candidates and up to two scrutineers each.

S.4.6. The election shall take place on a first past the post basis.

S.4.7. In any election year in which no nominations for the post of National Chairman of the party are received in accordance with Sub-section 2 of this Section, the currently serving holder of the post will be deemed to have received a mandate from the party to hold it for a further full term. In any election year where a leadership challenge is entered the currently serving National Chairman shall be deemed to be nominated automatically should he wish to stand again.

i.e. “In those circumstances where my efforts to stop nomination papers being signed works, I will be re-elected without the need for a leadership election, and we can have another four years of expelling my critics and promoting myself in BNP publications”.

S.4.8. In event of a General Election being called before the ballot papers have been posted, the campaign may be suspended at the discretion of simple majority vote of the AC, resuming the schedule immediately after polling day.

S.4.9. If an outgoing National Chairman is a paid employee of the party and either does not wish to remain as such or is not required as such by the new incumbent, he shall receive severance pay in line with the statutory requirement, plus one month for each year served up to a total of eight years, and one week extra for each year thereafter.

You have got to be joking?! Why just the National Chairman? Why not all those you fire at whim? Why this at all? Basically you are saying “either let me milk the BNP as Chairman or you will have to give me a massive pay-off if you vote me out”. You should be Chairman for the love of nationalism, not the love of money.If ever there was proof that you were in it for the money Nick then this is it - get out of our party you money obsessed moron.

S.4.10. The successful candidate in any such election will be considered as occupying the office of National Chairman immediately on completion of the counting of votes in that election.

Please note that the following proposed alterations are so closely connected to the changes proposed for S.4 that it is necessary to take them together with it as one composite motion 1.

S.5.6. The only other power of the Advisory Council shall be that it may call a General Members' Meeting by a two-thirds majority of Advisory Council members voting in a properly convened meeting with a quorum of two-thirds, even if this is opposed by the National Chairman. Alternatively the National Chairman may call such a meeting or postal ballot at any time he deems it necessary. Should such a meeting or ballot be called, it must be held within 40 days, and the matter which led to it being called shall be put to the members to decide. If a two-thirds majority of those voting should vote against the National Chairman then he is bound to accept that decision or to resign from the leadership, triggering a leadership election in which he may stand if he so wishes.As if anyone on the AC would dare undermine you like that Nick? Those hand picked people would be out of a job, out of a position, and no doubt out of the BNP with a few insults thrown in. You rule by fear, and most of those brave enough to stand up against you have been expelled.

S.5.7. The National Chairman may also be held to account by a motion proposed and supported in writing by twenty Voting Members and submitted to the party's registered headquarters address not later than 14 days before the date of the Annual Conference. This motion shall then be debated and voted upon by all Voting Members at the conference and, if passed by a minimum two-thirds majority, a leadership election shall be triggered, using the procedures and time-scale laid out in this Constitution, but with the schedule starting from 14 days after the date of the Annual Conference. The previous National Chairman may stand in this election is he so wishes.

S.5.10. A member of the Advisory Council shall not be removed from the Advisory Council on the day of an Advisory Council meeting.General Members' Meetings & Ballots

S.13.2. In the event of the National Chairman or the Advisory Council calling a General Members' Meeting, at least 14 days' notice must be given to all members by post with notification of the proposed motions. All members of the party shall have the right to attend and vote, subject to the provisions of Section 2, Sub-section 6 of this Constitution.

S.13.3. remove “not later than 28 days before the scheduled date of the meeting” and replace “National Chairman” with “Chairman of the meeting.”Motion 3Postal ballot option

S.13.5. General Members' Meetings may only be called by the National Chairman or by the Advisory Council in accordance with Section 5 of this Constitution. All matters which may be decided by a General Members' Meeting may also be put to the membership by postal ballot. The motions for such a postal ballot are to be decided by a two thirds majority of the Advisory Council or by the National Chairman and are to be sent out in the first available British Nationalist together with a ballot paper for each paid up member, who should have a minimum of 14 days in which to return the ballot paper. The opening and counting of the ballots is to be witnessed by the proposers and a minimum of two national officers, with all members of the Advisory Council entitled to attend should they so wish.

Motion 4Determination of Core Policies by Voting Members(Note: This is part of a rolling programme intended to transfer additional key powers to the Voting Membership, and further changes in that regard are expected in the future as the institution itself develops)

S.14.2. Change method of notification of any changes to the Constitution to “or publication on the party's official website.”

Add S.14.3. No proposals to change any part of Section 1 of this Constitution, or to change or adopt any major policy, are to be proposed to either a General Members' Meeting or in a postal ballot until previously passed by the Annual Conference of Voting Members.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

It came as no surprise to realise the depths to which Nick Griffin is prepared to stoop in order to make ‘a few extra quid’ had sunk even lower.

The disgust that a great many people have felt on hearing that the Party is selling fake Victoria Crosses; the highest military honour that can be bestowed on our brave armed forces personnel, has already been noted and commented on, and so does not need reiterating once again.

However, there is one point that many people, although already offended that Griffin is pursuing the ‘any old tat for money’ line have missed.

Griffin – Anyone is entitled to my opinion; because yours is worthless.

The fact that so many members and supporters have expressed their revulsion at the Party selling such crass tat, have quite obviously made no impression whatsoever on Griffin.

We have been reliably informed that when questioned regarding the potentially negative ramifications of such insensitivity, Griffin’s attitude was simply one of "If you don’t like it tough s**t, I’m the chairman and I make the decisions".

This type of 'Griffinism' we have all come to recognise, and although one can become desensitised to such belligerent arrogance, it nevertheless still comes as a shock considering that his popularity has hit rock bottom.

Under any normal democratic and non-dictatorial constitution, Griffin would have surely been thrown out on his ear by now by an angry membership for the shocking way which he has purged the Party of its brightest stars, while fleecing the membership of their donations in such a blatant way.

Griffin has reacted to the request to take down the sale of the Victoria Crosses as an attack on him and his regime. Just like the rhetoric he routinely spews at the meetings he speaks at, he simply reiterated his infamous line. "If you are not with me then go, and go now".

This proves to us that he is indeed a desperate coward that hasn’t even the most basic quality of any nationalist politician; the desire to listen to the wishes of the people.

Simon says, ‘Put your hands in your pockets’

Simon Darby, Griffin’s appointed National Press Officer and Deputy Chairman, in his usual ham-fisted fashion, attempted to try and palm off this issue by informing the national press that, quote,

"We [BNP] don't get donations from dodgy foreign businessmen or the trade unions - so we raise money in other ways".

Yes, we know Mr. Darby, like for an example, lying to the membership about desperately needing to raise tens of thousands of pounds to buy a [Truth Truck] lorry, when in fact you already had one waiting there all along!

The whole fund raising campaign is simply a gimmick to raise enough cash so that Griffin can fight his European Parliamentary campaign, and attempt to pay off his growing legal fees after failing to break the will and take away the homes of several ex-Party officials he purged from the Party last December.

Griffin’s dictatorship – backed-up with his hired muscle and the police.

Many members and ex-members alike have been in contact with the Challenge for Leadership team, and suggested that we attend this year's RWB en-mass in order to rally the growing support for the removal of Griffin from within it.

This course of action would not be beneficial to the goal of removing him; it would in fact play directly into his hands. Griffin would like nothing more than to attempt to once again label those that have dared to stand up to him as ‘Searchlight backed Red’s’ etc. We have been reliably informed that Party security has been handed a list of those persons "his Lordship" has deemed as undesirable to his weekend of Griffin-Worship.

Chairman’s Orders

Anyone on that list will be denied access to the site by security operating under ‘Chairman’s orders’ and then reported to the Police and possibly even arrested for Breach of the Peace to spend the rest of the day in a Derbyshire Police cell.

Griffin would then simply lump these patriots in with the assortment of 'Reds' and Communist types that are sure to hold a protest this year. Basically everyone outside of planet-Griffin would then simply be tarred as being ‘backed by Searchlight, blah blah blah’.

He would then make great play of it at every opportunity thereafter, about how we, the Challenge for Leadership team, tried to ruin the RWB but were stopped by his 'wonderful and intuitive leadership!’

We must continue to use our heads if we are to remove him – RWB Sunday EGM

Those freedom loving members of our Party who are attending this year's RWB, who believe that they will be given access to the site, once on site must carry themselves with that same honour and determination that afforded them the insight and perspective to realise the true character of Griffin in the first place.

During Sunday’s EGM, we implore such nationalists to use their voice to vote against Griffin’s proposals that if pushed through would officially and emphatically reduce the Party to that of a third rate tin-pot dictatorship.

Psychological pressure

Griffin’s opening address at the EGM will be polished and carefully worded and he will use every political salesman cliché in the book to try and deceive those voting members in attendance.

There is also likely to be a heavy security presence close to hand should he feel the need to exert a little extra psychological pressure on the audience by expelling one or two people from the meeting should proceedings displease him in some way.

The majority of people who have joined the Party have done so because they have seen through the blatant lies of the three main Parties, and decided to act in the hope that they could help build a viable alternative.

We ask these same people to simply do this once again, this time from within the Party with their eyes wide open. The membership must be kept informed about the desperate decrees and diktats that Griffin is prepared to throw at them in order to maintain his damaging regime that is dragging the Party down.

A time for hope!

It is our firm belief that the British National Party can, and will be wrestled away from Griffin; but it is going to take time, pressure and patience.

A growing number of nationalists from around the country have realised the truth, and Griffin’s principle propaganda machine the BNP website, is simply no longer sufficient to keep the wool pulled down over the eyes of the membership.

The greater part of the membership are starting to see the plain truth for what it is; they are realising that in Griffin’s warped version of our once proud Party, all individual members are afforded one of three options with their 2008 membership card -

Option 1 -The surrendering of all your nationalist principles and beliefs to those in line with Griffinsim which shall include a total unquestioning allegiance to him at all times.

Option 2 -Leave the Party quietly and leave now.

Option 3 -Be purged and bullied from the Party and then labelled a ‘Searchlight mole’ and slandered.

This is the state of play today for all members of the British National Party, but this terrible state of affairs will not last.

The sun will set on Griffinism, and we will continue to do what we can to accelerate its demise.

We wish all those attending the RWB a safe and pleasant journey – a report on the RWB weekend will follow.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

The following article was originally sent into us anonymously as a post comment, but we feel it covers so many points excellently we have posted it as an article in its own right.

As a long time Nationalist and, at one time, quite close to Nick Griffin I have sat back over the last couple of years and watched disturbing things unfold, develop and evolve into the situation that now exists within the B.N.P.

A situation where mistrust, lies and despotic rulings are legion. Comments on various blogs range from factual down to the down right disgusting and libellous, comments that are, without doubt, injurious to the Nationalist cause. I’ve always believed in ‘Fight Fire With Fire’ but when your own fire is burning you, you’d better think long and hard regarding your motives, and that is something that many people should have been done a long, long time ago.

The Ladder of political success has always been pitched at a very steep angle by the Liberal establishment and the powers that be. Ascending that ladder was, from the start, always expected to be tough going but Nationalists are a tough breed and a bit of tough going often strengthens the resolve. The problem I had was identifying who was responsible for applying a thick coat of grease to the rungs of this political ladder.

Not just making the going treacherous but deterring people from attempting such an arduous and risky climb in the first place.Too many people, good Nationalists, have come and gone over the years and, though some can be put down to natural leakage or the novelty wearing off, these losses must be addressed, warts and all.

The fact that, every so often, members are either sidelined, slandered or purged from the party is one thing, the reasons for their fate is, more than often, never really given or addressed in a democratic way. They are just labelled as being vermin etc. etc.

The rank and file continue their plod forward trusting the party management are right and that all will be well in the end.But can it be all well in the end? Can a political party really expect to reap the rewards of success when it constantly gets rid of its best and its brightest because they identify the weaknesses in the party and care enough to take the concerns and complaints of others within the party to their leader?

In the last Decembers purges, for example, it was much publicised that Kenny Smith, Sadie Graham and the rest of the so called ‘Rebels’ were outed from the Party because of the ‘Enoughisenoughnick’ blog that was set up. Total codswallop, they had seen the signs that their days within the party could be numbered way before that, back in September/October 07.

It must also be remembered that the blog did NOT attack the party and did NOT attack Nick Griffin in the first instance. It was a last ditch attempt at getting something done regarding Collett, Hannam and the like and getting Nick to listen to what so many members were complaining about.The discovery of the blog being set up by way of the recording, legal or illegal, was pure chance, completely by accident, a Godsend that gave Griffin the chance to do what he had been in planning for some time.

But the way that he did it showed complete and utter ignorance and bull headed incompetence in reading and handling the situation. Nick may be a good orator and politician but a manager? a people smith? never.Instead of suspending, who he considered to be the guilty, pending an immediate hearing by their peers, a disciplinary, and expulsion from the party if it were found necessary, Griffin had the whole affair broadcast to the Nation and his dog, giving the blog address and started the usual round of damaging slander.

Vermin, MI5 agents and Searchlight Moles etc. He knew he would have to really lay it on thick because it involved ranking members of the B.N.P. that were respected within the party for their hard work and dedication to Nationalism. (Yes this has all been said before but the carpet has got mighty lumpy over the years and it is getting lumpier month by month.)

Griffin acted in his own interest in removing, once again, talented people that, in the future, might threaten his hold on the leadership of the party, a move that has damaged the Party and, if I read the situation correctly, will come back to haunt him and be an awakening to those that still think the sun shines out of his every orifice.

Quote from Walter Matthau in the film ‘Grumpy Old Men’ ‘It must be nice living in Never Never Land, I’ll visit you when I want a break from reality'. End quote.

I believe in, and would always support, the Nationalist belief, but when I hear members say that Nick Griffin is the only hope for Nationalism in this county, I fear for its future. It’s the British Nationalist Party and its members that are the hope for the future and our hopes should lie with them.

But if Griffin gets his, much mooted, place in Europe and hands the leadership over to Collett, so he can still pull the strings attached to this obnoxious piece of work, then there is no hope, it will disintegrate.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

“In every sphere the British National Party is becoming more sophisticated and professional as each day goes by”

Thus wrote Martin Wingfield on June 30th on the official BNP web site. Martin is a well respected, highly knowledgeable political journalist with some 30 years of nationalist political experience under his belt. Little did he know that just days before he penned this bold claim that one of his colleagues had signed off the 2007 Accounts for the Regional Accounting Unit in a manner which seriously undermines the claim that the BNP has made any professional progress in that particular department. A speed reading of the report shows glaring errors while further enquiry reveals a shocking lack of care and responsibility for money donated by well meaning members and supporters.

The title page of the report is at least error-free which is about all that can be said for the 18 page report riddled with spelling errors and reads as if it were written by a first generation Albanian immigrant struggling with the language of his new home.

Day of the week

Pity poor David Hannam; Deputy Treasurer and compiler of the report – critics have often ridiculed him suggesting he doesn’t know what day of the week it is. We cannot possibly comment but here in black and white we have evidence that David is in a world of his own. Not once, not twice, but three times he signs off the documents 23rd June 2007 on pages 6,7,8 or to be correct the first page 8, because there are in fact two pages – quite separate in content labeled page 8. 2007, what the heck? Shame on his supposed friends and colleagues who didn’t offer to proof-read his earnest submission.

Those of us who have tramped the streets leafleting and canvassing the housing estates on our own patch may have smiled at the superstitious folly of the council planners or property developers who seem to regard number 13 as unlucky and a leaflet dropped into the letter box of number 11 is followed by the next house number 15. Dave appears to be similarly inclined with pages 11,12 being followed by page 14! Perhaps Dave is trying to ward off the bad luck omen that tragically shadows him.

Even the simple task of copying and pasting seems to beyond the “professionalism” of the Deputy Treasurer.

On page 1 we are told:

“The Regional Accounting Unit is a separately registered unit with the Electoral Commission. It is the only separate unit of the British National Party. It is operated and paid for by the Party.”

Page 8 (the first page 8) repeats this with a spelling error and the unnecessary use of quotes around the names of two organisations.

“The Regional Accounting Unit is a seperately (sic) registered unit with the “Electoral Commission”. It is the only separate unit of the “British National Party”. It is operated and paid for by the Party.”

Nice to see such professionalism at work in the “BNP”!

Increased control - apparently

The rest of (the first) page 8 goes on to relate how the aim of increased financial control and transparency has been achieved.

Excellent – that is welcome reassurance to all those members, supporters and casual donors who can see where their money is going and must surely prove that all those criticisms from the army of doubters are unfounded. So let’s see what Dave Hannam has in store for us; all the criticisms leveled against him that he doesn’t know his backside from his elbow and that he never should have been given the job in the first place are surely unfair and made by those trouble making individuals jealous of his achievements. The same criticisms made no doubt by those the Chairman called “vermin” in public on many occasion in the December purges.

Well, our hopes for greater transparency are very short-lived and dented by the wording on (the second) page 8 which is a bit of a let down on the professional front. We are told:

“These financial statements have been prepared under the historic cost convention and the accounting policies set out on page 17.”

Fast forward to page 17, the final of the report…..oh, nothing there except a continuation of the “Notes to the Financial Statements”. Perhaps Dave means page 16 or perhaps Dave thinks that the historic cost convention was a meeting of various heads of state in Washington in 1927.

Page 9 (or should it be page 10 – it’s all a bit of a muddle now) would make any teacher of the English language weep. It resembles the mother tongue but only just.

However, sarcasm aside the real damage is beginning to reveal itself. We are told that monthly reconciliations have not been carried out, that the “situation was also made more difficult due to the fact that central office have at periods (sic) borrowed from the regions.”

The key word here is “borrowed”, how much and for how long and for what purpose. Oh well we don’t know because we are told “(A)n annual reconciliation has not been carried out”.

The figure of £42,000 “borrowed” by Central Office from the region appears in the statement made by the official auditors, Cannock based Silver and Co. who report:

“In our opinion the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the party’s affairs as at 31st December 2007; allowing for the fgact that at the year end the Party owed the Region £42,000 and the reason why this is the case is that it had insufficient funds, which places doubts on the ability of the Party to replay this money.”

That needs repeating, by the end of 2007 Central Office borrowed £42,000 (or £41,831 to be exact) from the regional coffers and the official auditors raises doubts about the ability of the Party to repay that sum in part or in full. No small wonder that some fundholders are stuffing the cash raised at meetings under their mattresses.

Snakes and ladders

The auditors also note that the petty cash income of £147,119 cannot be accounted for. It has simply appeared in the income column without a word of explanation. There was no such entry in the previous year. Donations throughout 2007 were down by 31% compared to the previous year, income from membership 26%, fundraising by 83% and income from commercial activities down by 21%. In other words, the year which saw “organisational growth” (page 1 of the report) also witnessed income in four areas significantly reduced compared to the previous year. However that reduced income is more than compensated for by the magical appearance of the £147,119 which resulted in an increased overall income of £74,868 on the previous year, an increase of 35%.

An increase in income of 35% is indeed worthy of praise and respect but this is greatly offset by apparent increased costs of operation.

The local council elections of May 2007, plus serious efforts to make progress in the regional chambers in Wales and Scotland understandably accounts for the massive hike in campaign costs from £36K in 2006 to nearly £91K in 2007. A breakdown of these costs shows almost all of this expenditure was on leaflets £89,542. The National Accounting Unit report shows that leaflet costs incurred by Central Office were £45,213. Leaflets are printed almost exclusively by printing companies contracted by Vanguard Promotions, the name of the sole trading operation owned by Mark Collett. Thus in 2007 a total of £134,755 was contracted by the BNP through Vanguard. It is not unreasonable for the owner of such a business to allow for necessary items of expenditure incurred running such a business and to charge the Party for the intellectual effort involved in designing items of publicity. There is a big question mark about the amount charged to the Party for that intellectual input. What percentage of the £134k goes straight into the bank account of Mark Collett, 5%, 10%, 15%, maybe more?

The costs of printing Identity, VOF and the FSID DVD all rose.

The monthly Identity magazine is a costly venture incurring a loss which would be enough to keep a full time employee on the books. It is widely known that the well respected veteran of nationalism, John Bean who does an excellent job of editing the magazine does so completely gratis; not even seeking reimbursement for the not inconsiderable telephone bills incurred as a necessary result of his work. If the editor doesn’t take a penny the only other area of cost must be in the layout, design and printing. All three conveniently undertaken by the same person, graphic designer Mark Collett who is responsible for layout and ensuring the job is contracted out to the most competitive printing company via his Vanguard Promotions intermediary.

The regional accounts show income from sales of ID - £8,170 and the costs of producing ID - £22,385

The Central Accounts report at a national level sales of £32,487 and costs of producing ID - £34,458

The combined income from ID sales is £40,657, whereas the cost of production is £56,843 a staggering loss of £16,286. The magazine costs just over £1 to produce and retails at £2.40 so why is the Party not making a profit? Furthermore a party struggling with debt might target this activity for a serious cost-cutting operation.

According to national and regional accounts a grand total of £191,598 (£134,755 on leaflets - £56,843 on ID) passed through Vanguard Promotions, a private and therefore unaccountable business run for personal gain by Mark Collett who sits on the Advisory Council. Fortunately for Master Collett the BNP is not subject to the same level of scrutiny as a local authority or other public agency as the words “conflict of interest” might inspire a serious enquiry.

The balance sheet shows that at the end of 2007 the Central Office plundered the Regional coffers to the tune of £41,831 apparently “borrowed” but for what reason and under what conditions we are not informed. Borrowing from Regional funds is nothing new, in 2006 £21,854 was removed in the same manner. However the additional £20,000 borrowed by the Central Accounting Unit during 2007 doesn’t appear as income in the central accounts. It shows up on the Central accounts as a liability in the British Heritage Acxcount (sic). If this is an example of “transparent” accounting Mr. Hannam needs a dictionary.

Businesses of all sizes rely on double-entry book-keeping. An organisation which attracts opprobrium from political opponents can compensate by striving towards professionalism in all other areas of its operation media desires to be taken seriously The BNP deserves better than back of envelope scribbling.

Notes 6 and 7 to accompany the financial statements are missing but we can assume they must appear on the invisible page 13. Note 6 relates to Management and Administration £63,434 and note 7 to Other Expenditure which cost £9,208. The omission of page 13 could, we concede, be a simple mistake by the Electoral Commission in the uploading of the report onto their web site but in view of all the other errors contained in the report we are inclined to lay the blame at the door of the former supermarket trolley steward David Hannam.

Black holes

On page 1 readers are told

“The Regional Accounting Unit is a separately registered unit with the Electoral Commission. It is the only separate unit of the British National Party. It is operated and paid for by the Party. It therefore incurs no costs, other than the annual audit fee, and generates no income in its own rights. It exists to consolidate the affairs of the different Units within one accounting unit.”

A professional fee of about £2,000 to the auditors would not be unreasonable for an operation of this size, and we can only assume, because it is not made clear that the audit fee would appear in Management and Administration, so what about the remaining £61K? If the Regional Accounting Unit “incurs no costs” what exactly is included in the £61,000 of expenditure?

Dave Hannam referring to the Regional Accounting Unit cites that “[It] is the only separate unit of the British National Party.” There is the Trafalgar Club which is an elite fundraising club. It must surely qualify as a separate unit of the BNP in a similar way to the Regional Accounting Unit which acts as an umbrella for the other regional fund raising clubs like the Peacock, Mercia and RedRose clubs. Accounts for the Trafalgar Club are never discussed at Advisory Council meetings, never submitted to the Electoral Commission and never made public through any other channel.

Criticism vindicated

In September last year the Group Support Officer, Ian Dawson resigned his post in frustration. Despite repeated attempts to draw the Chairman’s attention to the catalogue of sheer incompetence of the Deputy Treasurer no action, not even offering a helping hand, formal courses in book-keeping or other form of practical assistance to the struggling post-holder, was ever taken. David Hannam is a genuine nice enough young man but in his post of Deputy Treasure is a round-peg in a square hole.

Ian Dawson wrote a letter of resignation which listed a number of comments about the Deputy-Treasurer, comments which have been completely vindicated by this dog’s dinner of a report and confirmed by dozens of fund holders past and present around the country. Ian included:

· Mistakes on bank balances, and bank balance not being sent out often enough or up to date. This is a major bugbear in that local groups often get bank balances that are wrong. This is of especially great concern to me, as it is myself that sends them out and often gets the complaints back in. Many groups complain that money has not been credited to their account that they have banked, that things have not been explained in full on the account, and regional officials often complain that agreed local to regional transfers have not been completed. This is one of the most important roles of the regional treasurer and it is one that at the moment is not being done competently in any shape or form. The statements sent through for me to send out in August were shockingly bad – they had to be sent back twice with a long list of corrections that needed to be done. Lincoln for example, have had a nightmare time with the management of their account.

· Petty cash books and paying in books take an infuriatingly long time to get sent to new units. This leads to a high number of complaints when all that is needed is once every ten days to send a treasury pack to new units. Also, people complain that they don’t get things returned within a reasonable timescale when they submit things for auditing etc. Examples of units to complain about the lateness of treasury packs includes Southend, Exeter, Nuneaton, Castle Point, West Lindsey, Yorkshire, Richmond, Solihull, New Forest etc. etc.

· Dave often lies. This is an exceptionally infuriating trait that makes already annoying situations ten times worse. Instead of saying that something has not yet been done, people are often told ‘is in the post’ or ‘I’ve just sorted it now’, when in reality nothing has been done. This then means that people are under the illusion that they will be receiving documents in the next couple of days only to find that nothing arrives as nothing has been sent.

The content of Ian Dawson’s letter was dismissed by the Chairman, Nick Griffin as nothing more than “ad hominem attacks” and “bullshit”.

Summary

So there we have it – the BNP which according to Martin Wingfield in growing in professionalism has submitted a set of accounts to the Electoral Commission who holds these documents in perpetuity and makes them available to any member of the general voting public freely without any apparent proof-reading, without a second pair of eyes checking the content. Here we have a set of accounts which cannot explain the mysterious appearance of £147K of petty cash income, which shows the Regional Accounts plundered by Central Office to the tune of £42K, which shows a small fortune passing through the hands of Mark Collett and his Vanguard Promotions without revealing just how much the BMW driving owner of that business rakes in as commission from Party funds. Costs continue to rise, income is down and we are presented with a black hole of £61,000 in unexplained management and administration costs.

Accounts make for pretty dull reading but this one is part comic and part mystery but we also have to conclude they provide devastating evidence that the BNP is not the great white hope of the political struggle.

At a time when our race and nation face unprecedented perils on all fronts; culturally, economically, demographically and politically there has never been a greater need for organisations to represent the interests of the native ethnic groups of these islands in each and every sphere of commercial, political and cultural activity. Such organisations demand first class leadership, professionalism and fuelled by a burning desire to make things happen and get results.

It is both tragic and criminal that in its present condition the profligate leadership of BNP cannot be viewed as possessing the qualities needed and safeguarding the means to ensure not just our continued ethnic survival but our spiritual and moral progress and future sustainable economic prosperity for all time to come in our ancient island homelands.

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